As England maintain their relentless progress towards a 5-0 drubbing down under, many may wonder how they have fallen so quickly from grace. Those with a more pragmatic approach may not be quite so confused.
Earlier this year, the young Arsenal football player Jack Wilshere started a debate regarding the nationality of those representing their country. The England cricket team has recently featured more players born in South Africa than in England. This suggests a number of possibilities. It might be that the coaching structure in South Africa is better then in England. It might suggest that young South Africans have a greater hunger for success. It might also suggest that English players just aren't as good as we'd like to think they are.
In recent times, we have had Andrew Strauss (now retired to pursue a lucrative political career), Jonathon Trott (recently departed Test cricket due to long standing mental health problems), Kevin Pieterson (who invariably plays for himself rather than England) and Matt Prior (recently dropped following a poor run of form). The current English batting now just features Pieterson as it's sole South African. Based on his performances thus far, it is debatable whether his presence constitutes an advantage or not.
England are now laid bare with just English born players (Pieterson excepted). Putting aside the superiority of the coaching regimes of other countries, the real issue is one of passion and desire. The opposition was no less competitive when Ray Illingworth took an English side in 1970 or when Mike Gatting took a side in 1986.
England now find themselves in a crossroads situation. They have been forced in to picking young players of limited experience. They will clearly incur defeats along the way. To persist with Pieterson therefore makes little sense since England know they are now embarking on a period of significant transition.
For the people who continue to advocate the inclusion of Kevin Pieterson, I would like to point out a few facts. He is not a great batsman. His compatriot Jacques Kallis has just announced his retirement from Test cricket. Kallis has been a great batsman. Kallis averages over 55 runs per innings after 166 matches. He has also been one of the very finest catchers the game has ever seen and has also taken the small matter of 292 Test wickets for good measure. Pieterson by comparison has averaged a modest 47 runs per innings after 102 Test matches. The difference between 47 and 55 in Test cricket is the demarcation between good batsmen and great batsmen. Make no mistake, the big difference between Kallis and Pieterson is that Kallis knows the value of his wicket and never gives it away. After over a hundred Test matches. Pieterson has still to learn this basic rule of batting. Suggestions that Pieterson would have walked in to the South African batting line up are frankly fanciful. For one thing, they play for their team.
Putting Pieterson aside, the current England Test side looks wobbly to say the least. The Captain is short of confidence and looks incapable of a decent score, his opening partner is a stop gap solution and Ian Bell looks a shadow of the player who has batted like a super star leading up to this series. Stokes is very young and a great weight of expectation has been placed on his young shoulders.
Then there is the bowling. Broad is currently our best bowler and remains aggressive but does not look like he's going to bowl a side out. The departure of Swann was a hammer blow with Panesar offering a mere shadow of Swann's talents. Anderson is on the wain. Every bowler has his day and I fear Anderson's best days are behind him. In short, England are a work in progress to put it kindly. To be rather more blunt, they are in a mess and in desperate need of leadership. Being 3-0 down in Australia is not a good place to be if you want to feel good about yourself and get your confidence back. Roll on the summer and let the revolution begin. Better to have a Test side with eleven English born players and a true picture of our ability.
I like to inject balance in to pieces like this and do so now. The last English batsman to dominate our batting with a South African connection was Walter Reginald Hammond. Born in Dover, Hammond was the pre-eminent English batsman from the late 1920s until the visit of Bradman's Australians in 1948. Hammond averaged over 58 each innings for England and made runs against everyone on uncovered pitches. He also took 83 wickets and was arguably the finest of the inter-war fielders. He died in Natal at the age of 62. How I wish we had one player who was even a patch on Hammond now.
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